Day 10

In the second day of my treatment plan we continued with chiropractic manipulations of the TL junction and mobilization of the foot, but we also got into breathing and core. Justin evaluated my breathing which basically consisted of me laying on my back with my knees and feet elevated and ribs compressed. He then placed his hands on different parts of my abdomen and asked me to push his fingers out with proper breathing. I know it may seem odd to most, but when you take a breath, it is actually your abdomen all the way down to your pelvic floor that should be expanding, not your rib cage. This type of movement is only possible if you have a properly functioning diaphragm and a strong core.

So why is proper breathing important? Well this is impossible to sum up in one post, so I will hit on some key factors.

1)When you allow yourself to breath with your diaphragm, it presses down into your abdominal cavity. If this is countered by contraction of the pelvic floor and abdominal muscles, then you have successfully created a compact and secure band around your waist. This is your natural weightlifting belt! with proper diaphragmatic breathing and stabilization you can pretty quickly say goodbye to back pain and stability issues.

2) By holding the ribs down with the the abdominal muscles and the diaphragm, it creates a stable base out of your ribs. Other muscles that originate on the ribs are then performing their actions on solid ground rather than on a wobbly raft. So the serratus anterior can now function to hold down the scapula with less difficulty and you can start to say bye to shoulder instability!

3) Every time you perform a full breath cycle diaphragmatically, you extend at the TL junction and flex at the LS junction as well as moving each joint in between. The intervertebral discs are nourished through immbibition, a physical suctioning in of nutrients that requires this motion. So essentially, with proper breathing mechanics, every breath acts to nourish the disc. And with this you can start to prevent degenerative disc disease.

This is just one of the many powerful outcomes I have been privy to while under routine care from a doctor of chiropractic medicine. Small changes that create widespread positive results!

Day 9

Today I met with Justin Bryant, an intern in NUHS' student clinic. We did a physical and discussed some of my lingering aches as well as goals for continued health. Something most people don't know is how much you can benefit from seeing a good doctor when you go in without pain, hoping to hold onto continued health. My aches over my right hip have been constant for years, but so subtle that it has never bothered me. Although my right toe aches a bit, it hasen't acted up lately, so I never saw fit to go get it checked out before today.

After my physical and some orthopedic tests, Justin determined that my hip pain was primarily do to something called "Maigne's Syndrome". "Maigne's Syndrome" is actually a result of an immobile or inflamed thoracolumbar joint (T11-L2) which results in refereed pain/discomfort to the dermatomes associated with these root levels (iliac crest, buttocks, skin of the groin). You can read more about Maigne's Syndrome at the following link: Maigne's Syndrome and see dermatomes here: Dermatome Map. Justin manipulated my TL junction and all of the numbness and discomfort in my hip went away immediately! For years I have been stretching, and massaging my right hip with no improvement, and one properly placed manipulation does the trick! Justin explained to me that this is just the start of treatment and that one adjustment can't undo years of immobility. So we made a full rehab plan that included adjustments, stretches, stabilization exercises, and re patterning the way I breathe and sit.

At the end of this first visit, Justin also worked to provide more mobility in the rigid parts of my foot and applied some soft tissue techniques to reduce the tenderness and inflammation in my great toe. So why do we want to give mobility to a rigid foot? When applying Newton's 3ed law, it is easy to see that every time the foot strikes the ground with say, 200 lbs of force, the ground in turn is hitting the foot with 200 lbs of force! Each foot strikes the ground between 10 and 15 thousand times a day, absorbing the equivalent of 639 metric tons of force. Applying physics further, this is 110% of your body weight passing through you at 200 mph every single time you take a step! If your foot is not mobile and is unable to transfer this force through the kinematic chain, then something else has to compensate and take the brunt of the force. So even if I am not experiencing pain now, this repeated force could eventually trash my foot and and strain my hip and low back. Issues with the foot are now even proving to affect the human body all the way up to the atlanto-occipital complex.

Day 8

I decided to take a day off from the gym today to focus on my midterm exames and let my body recoupe and rest up a bit. Yesterday was my second day of gluteus medius workouts and I ended up adding 3 small exercises to it. "In the window" and "out the window" both have you on all fours and you move one leg as if you where climbing in through a window and then out through a window. "The fire hydrant" is a bit base, but you basically lift one leg to the sky as a dog would at a fire hydrant. These new three exercises incorporate more of the gluteus muscles and sure do leave you a little stiff the next day! The exciting part, is that after only two of these workouts, I have begun to notice a change in my gate. My adductors are no longer holding on for dear life, and I don't have as much of a heal whip. It is actually much easier to walk in a straight line. These are motivating results and I will make sure to keep you updated as I progress!